Photo Album: Remembering the Astrotower (1964-2013)

After the nightmarish July 4 Holiday Weekend demolition of the Swaying Tower of Coney Island, all that remains in Luna Park are a few feet, shown above, covered with tarp. It looks like a grave. The media appear to have lost interest in what they called “the iconic Astrotower” as soon as it was chopped down to about 90 feet, a third of its original size.

News reports that “Officials have not said yet whether the tower will be reassembled or if it’s gone for good” are ridiculous. The tower was not dismantled, bolt by bolt. It was cut apart with a blowtorch and the pieces were hauled off to the Cropsey Avenue scrapyard, where fans rushed to photograph it and salvage pieces as a souvenir.

Coney fans on social media are referring to what’s left of the tower in Coney Island as the Astrostump or the Lunastump. Some of our friends who live in nearby high rises and for whom the Astrotower was an intrinsic part of the skyline say something’s missing and they feel sad.

It is more than sad. The Parachute Jump, sole survivor of Steeplechase, endured years of neglect and threats of demolition before being landmarked in 1988 and rehabbed in 2002. Astroland, Coney’s Island’s Space-Age theme park, opened in 1964, which was Steeplechase’s final season. For children of the late 60’s and the 1970’s and beyond, Astroland Park was Coney Island.

The tower was all that remained of Astroland in the new Coney Island and now it’s gone.

This photo and the one below were snapped by photographer Adrian Kinloch on the last day of the 2007 season, when the observation tower last operated as a ride.

Astroland was built on the site of Feltman’s, the restaurant and amusement park complex owned by Charles Feltman, the inventor of the hot dog. When the Albert family decided to develop the park, Jerry Albert began making trips to the West Coast and Europe to seek out state-of-the-art rides. Designed and built by Willy Bühler Space Towers Company of Switzerland with cabins by Von Roll, the $1.7 million dollar Astrotower was the first of its kind in the U.S. when it was installed.

“Who Wants An Outlandish Astrotower? Who Wants A Big Bagel in the Sky?” said an editorial in the World Telegram and Sun when the Astrotower made its debut in 1964, according to the book “Coney Island and Astroland” by Charles Denson. “There’s only one place where anyone would dare to put up such a thing, and that’s Coney Island, that land of the frivolous, where gaiety and fun have reigned for years. We’re glad to see the old place hasn’t lost it’s zest for the bizarre.” R.I.P. Astrotower, 1964-2013.

I first rode The AstroTower in 1964 as a four year old boy. I last rode it in 2007 with my wife as a 47 year old man. It’s been a part of my life for most of my life and I feel as if a chunk of me has been demolished just as the tower was demolished. This did not have to happen, and we don’t have to be lied to regarding the cause. We were told that the gondola and counterweight, which kept the Astrotower’s weight evenly distributed were removed because of Sandy damage. If this is the case, why did Luna Park have a permit to remove them in August? IMHO, the owners of Luna Park knew the consequences of removing the gondola and counterweight. IMHO, the AstroTower was murdered.

Loose Change: Astrotower
The reason given was because weight was removed from the top of the tower it began abnormally swaying, so it had to come down. The swaying was reported by an unidentified tourist. This seems fishy to me, especially the claim that a lighter, less top heavy structure would be less stable. Was there an actual safety issue, or was it more likely that there was some kind of conspiracy to bring the tower down?
A friend who is attending Drexel as a mechanical engineering major wrote this: If you look at the torsion forces involved, a straight tower is more stable then a tower with weight on it. Also less SA means less wind resistance. YAY Mech E

This whole episode including the demolition was nightmarish. But I DO NOT THINK IT WAS A CONSPIRACY (nor did I ever write such a thing) though this theory is floating around, possibly because of conflicting statements that appear in the press? The timing of the tourist’s 911 call was very unfortunate since it resulted in a public perception that the tower would topple, whether or not that was true. The city had to temporarily close Luna Park, Wonder Wheel Park and numerous independent concessions for the 3rd and part of the 4th, while the Office of Emergency Mgmt and Luna Park mgmt figured out what to do. It’s just not possible that anyone with a stake in Coney Island would manufacture such a turn of events on 4th of July weekend simply to get rid of the long neglected tower.

Re the sway of the tower, some who work in Coney Island and are used to the tower’s sway say it was more pronounced than usual, others say that it was the same. Buildings Department Commissioner Robert LiMandri was quoted on NY1 on July 3rd:

It is not unusual for the tower to move a bit, but the Buildings Department determined the amount of sway to be too much in low wind to be able to say for sure that it would not collapse.

The city said that contractors working for Luna Park removed elevator machinery late in the winter, and they said that has now increased the sway of the Astrotower, making it unsafe.

well, I usually agree with the quote “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.”
Either the engineers who signed off on the removal of the gondola/counterweights royally screwed up, or the ones who said the swaying was a danger screwed up. Or perhaps its inadequate reporting, and LiMandri went into more detail about the cause. I DO think it’s possible that the owner would manufacture a situation to get it removed, since if the ride was uneconomical to run, and if it were to be landmarked, then he would have an expensive burden to maintain. Having it happen on July 4th would just help a cover up, as everyone would be panicked about saving the holiday.

To understand what happened, you have to understand the principal behind the attraction, In very simple terms, it was a elevator. The principal behind elevator operation is very simple. Think of this experiment.

Mount a pulley to a wall. You have a string going up, across the pulley and down again. Tie a 100 pound weight on one end of the string, and you tug on the other end of the string to lift the 100 pounds. Now on the side you are pulling on, mount a 50 pound weight, and you will see it is allot easier to lift the 100 pounds. Why? You are using the 50 pound weight and gravity to help you lift the 100 pounds. This requires less energy for you.

The same principal works on the Astrotower gondola, just allot more weight is involved. If the gondola weighs 1000 pounds, you do not need a motor that can lift 1000 pounds, with a counterweight system in place, perhaps you need a motor that only requires to lift 200 pounds. I know these are not correct numbers, I am just using them as a example.

So lets say you have a gondola and counterweight system both weighing 2000 pounds. Both weights are balancing the tower through a pulley at the top. So you have more weight holding the top down. Think more of center of gravity then the weight alone at the top. And you can understand without the additional weight holding the top down, it will sway more. The counter weights did not sat in the top. For when the gondola went up, inside the tower, the counter weights went down.

You would figure a engineer could have anticipated this. And this is what the Dept of Buildings said.

The owner of the Astrotower was not Zamperla/CAI, but the city. Looking at the DOB paperwork concerning what happened on the July 4th holiday listed New York City Economic Development Corporation as the owner.

Bruce, while I’m not an engineer, I am aware of issues of harmonics and resonances as illustrated by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It seems to me that a structure that is stable with a large amount of weight and a midpoint center of gravity would be even more stable when that weight is removed. It may sway more because it is less stiff but it won’t break since it is DESIGNED to support a lot more weight.

Harmonics and resonances has nothing to do in the instance. I described how a elevator system operates. Removing the weights made the tower sway close to its tolerances. Real engineers said that in the news reports. They said it did not pass those tolerances. While the tower is made to sway. If it sways too much, it will develop stress cracks. The weights kept it from swaying too much, remove the weights, it swayed more.

While I cant describe the forces at work here, before gondola and weights were removed, it was stable, after, less stable. Case closed.

It’s not a matter of harmonics so much as one of weight distribution. The gondola and counterweight kept the center of gravity on the Astrotower in the middle of the shaft. When the gondola was up, the counterweight was down. When the gondola was down, the counterweight was up. When the gondola was in the middle, so was the counterweight. When they were removed, however, The red top became the heaviest point and the sway of the tower became more and more pronounced. I can’t help but think that Zamperla, being ride manufacturers would have known this.

The conspiracy theory floating around is ludicrous. Negative news that hurts business in Coney Island affects every stakeholder. The City and Luna Park are among the biggest stakeholders. Headlines saying Coney Island is closed are not something anyone in Coney wants to see much less create.

Nor do I think the tower was deliberately destabilized. It was definitely set to get an LED lighting package and removing the cab was always part of that plan, as is clear from renderings. Engineers as well as non-engineers, including commenters on this thread, seem to have differing POV about whether its removal made the tower unstable.

I posted “Remembering the Astrotower” in memoriam expecting people would post memories of the Astrotower. Instead there’s arguing at the funeral about the deceased’s medical condition. It is making my head and my heart hurt. Discussion is closed on this thread